look up!

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yes, the good rain is here.. it will make for a refreshing start of a new week.

the boss had earlier asked what i thought of the local 3 men run-up attempt to lead one of the component party here.. i had sortof placed my bet on the old man with the 'case'. he seemed astonished, asking me why i had thought so. well, i had my 'reasonings' so to say, assuring him that it was all of course, pure guess-work, as i dont really like following the local politics here.

and so i received an sms from him late today, 7:41pm to be precise. the results were out... to which i replied... well, everyone's a sinner these days...

to borrow this from one of our local artiste, who came up with this brilliant song, Hijau ...

korupsi, opresi, obsesi diri

polusi, depressi, di bumi, kini

i dont know why, but i just thought of it.

and here, my joglog#11

sometimes i get myself astonished too, and somewhat rewarded, with the brilliant things that i get when i simply tilt my head upwards to look at what's above.

do you see those mighty rays beaming from behind that massive piece of cloud? well, at least i did try my best to capture those with my 'ol ericsson..

.. and i think i shall continue my joglogs at precisely the 3rd weekend from now.. should all go well.

=)

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another itch scratched...

logs~

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joglog#10
decided that the heart is stronger than the will this morning,
and decided to hit the alarm-off button once and for all,
the day did not officially start until it was like already about ten, in the morning.
nevertheless, all was not lost.

the weather was very permissive today... and this is what i got from today's run:



nice indeed. luv' it!
that, plus a repeat-rotation of 2 of paramore's songs: The Only Exception and Decode (in acoustic). gotta sing praise here, Hayley's got some truly exceptional vocals...~

and btw, this was joglog#9, taken on 14th mar, 2010...
not exactly a fantastic jog, with threats of rain falling anytime soon...
a spoiler this one ... with me thighs wincing in pain for a full week right after ... XS







another itch scratched...

hmm..

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i do think, that perhaps, I should.
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what have you done lately?

that you feel is not quite right??..
no? none at all?? well that is something good.

do, keep it up.

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another itch scratched...

merry indeed..

when it's after a night of 'clubbing', at a widely justified, most acceptable playground of all in KL, what do you do when you find yourself still so sober, besides just being a tad sleepy.. ?
'clubbing' with the punctuation marks and being in italic, is simply because, i dont think i can define, what is clubbing to me anymore.
gone were the days where i'd brave the crowd at the dance floor, and sway and sweat like everybody's looking..
but of course, when it's somewhat a birthday request by a friend, a dear one at that, no questions asked, i'd happily oblige and indulge.
indulge? yes. 'cause most of the times, i'd say we shouldnt limit ourselves from things we think we ought to ban.
nevertheless, objective achieved. (i think it was the beer...)
it's been so long (do Not sing to the tune of akon's)... since i saw dear J squating by some roadside puking the night's contents out...
: )
merry making indeed, happy joyous birthday. . .



another itch scratched...

escapism

n.
the tendency to escape from daily reality or routine by indulging in daydreaming, fantasy or entertainment.

n.

an inclination to or habit of retreating from unpleasant reality, as through diversion or fantasy.

Caught this very recently with my dear chums... although, the screening time was at an ungodly hour of 2300 (on a weekday, yes, that is considered too much for me..) i'd surprised even my best mates. well, what can i say? the adoration to all things weird and looney by Mr Burton ... and Mr Depp of course...


alas, this was a re-spinning of the tale, with a rather grown-up Alice, facing crossroads at her young life, of the Conventional vs. Bold & Daringness shitz... no prizes for guessing what she chose ultimately,... especially not after what she went through (dream or not) underneath the rabbit hole...

which is exactly that...

i'd just finished reading this fantasy too ... Neverwhere by a Mr Neil Gaiman.

touted as "A Dark Contemporary Alice In Wonderland", true to the core, it is all about escapism. at least, that is how i chose to see it.

somehow or rather, these protagonists come to a crossroad in life, or worse, they come to a standstill in life. rather dull and lifeless, eventless and unexcited... they find themselves encountering these weird and unbelievable situations where they turn into some reluctant heroes. and after all those impossible feats, Voila~! they emerge someone with renewed assurance of themselves.

in reality, as in non-fiction world, these would be sad cases of people gone cuckoo. bonkers. wouldnt it be a tad extreme, for someone to have to go through all these fantasies, in order to convince themselves that the world simply do not wait for them?

well then i guess, these tales, they are but just lighter ways to make people see just that.

hmm, reading too, is a form of escapism i guess. and so are movies, concerts, simply doing something different.. entertaining.

afterall, where do you find so many rabbit holes around anymore?

***

but just a note though, on comparison; Alice walked away from underland, and embarked to cross continents.

Richard Mayhew (of Neverwhere) eventually achieved what he thought he wanted to achieve in London Above, only to find himself so empty and it all so pointless, preferring instead to walk back to the Underside.

"So life isn't exciting?" ... "Great. Give me boredom. At least I know where I'm going to eat and sleep tonight. I'll still have a job on Monday. Yeah?" ...

~pg.366

on the left: Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. think Jungle Book, only in a graveyard, 'stead of a jungle.

another itch scratched...

do you know?

what You like most?
what makes you happy the most?

some ideas tend to present themselves as the ultimate breakaway.. of unrestricted freedom, of borderless adventures.
some ideas tend to present themselves as the achievement of the ultimate enjoyments. of ultimate heights (or depths) in the inner sanctum of one's feelings.

it's not that hard really, to have ideas projected into our minds, of what is the ultimate idea of life's enjoyment(s).

try visualizing a scene like brad pitt riding on his bright galleon of a bike (somehow without the need of a helmet) as Benjamin Button. looking all dashing and almighty, like without a care in the world.
would that make you like want to fling everything you have, Now, and Here, out the window and go to maybe some vineyards in somewhere Provence, spend your fortune on a bike like that, and ride like there's no tomorrow? well, you know? the hype's like.. what? Attack Your Life Today? ? ?


or, maybe, watch nick jonas in his mv... Who I Am, see how he sings so passionately, while strumming his guitar. so earnestly, making music, enjoying the time of his young life.

on a quiet sunday afternoon, lazing on the rattan recliner, the weather somewhat tolerable, coupled with the ceiling fan blowing mildly, this song by one of them jonases, is enough to make me gib on this..

the joy of doing these things, whatever it is that you fancy, is but only half the joy of knowing, actually realizing, what it is that you fancy. that one thing (or few..) that makes you tick. that makes your heart skip a beat.. and perhaps your breath hyperventilate..

sweat exerting activities .. running? rock climbing? caving? white water rafting?
alcohol induced activities .. clubbing? pubbing? jazz clubs with cheese and wine?
mind wriggling activities .. a good movie? reading? writing? or simply, blogging?
small fortune spending activities .. acquiring of new toys? travelling cross continent?

the Question now: How many times, how long a time, do we need to spend, does it take for us, to finally see, and know, that That, is what we like to do The most.. that one thing that would give us the ultimate high.


"to live is the rarest thing in the world.
most people exist, that is all.."
~ Oscar Wilde

and this, my Joglog#8 ... one of the many things (i'm sure), slowly unravelling itself to become one of my highs. definitely took me more than 7 runs to know.

the green field that when is void of human activities, always reminds me of the clearing where the Cullens play ball on thunder-filled evenings.. (it did not take me long to Know that i fancy the twilight saga...)

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another itch scratched...

oh dreary.. (joglog#7)

although, i Do consider it a feat for myself, to finally be able to get back to the FRIM greens for my 1-round-jog.. still, combing through my 'joglogs' .. my, my, this was but only the 7th time i'd been there so far on my own.

just a half-month break from running, and i find myself walking, once again, like a crab today around the office. oh dear.. i reali should put the perspective back into things, and stick to getting up early on my weekends. this is no longer, just optional.

behold, my solitary ride outside the gates to greens. it was, after all, save for the heat (i was already sweating a bucketload at home), a blissful sunday afternoon..

oh well, better efforts (and better shots) this coming weekend then.






another itch scratched...

what solitude drives u to...

i tend to fold a corner of the page, where i find interesting and memorable quotes in, from any book that i'm currently into.
very recently, i've finished, most eagerly, Yann Martel's Man Booker Prize winning 'Life of Pi' (Piscine Molitor Patel, Indian origin), and i have not a book that i've folded so many pages of.
and the page where i'd fold the biggest section of, almost half of a page:
pg.282 ~ Chapter75
"On the day when I estimated it was Mother's birthday, I sang "Happy Birthday" to her out loud."
that, was the entire chapter. all One full sentence of it.
Pi was out floating in the great Pacific, with no idea whatsoever on when his ordeal would come to a close. either the sea would take him in, or the tiger, Richard Parker, would.
this one sentence alone, almost sparked a tear in me. the solitude of a single soul, onboard the big blue ocean. of course, he had Richard Parker with him too...



another itch scratched...

la femme libre ..

the free woman..

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it was finally, the end of the fifteen days of the lunar new year yesterday.

on the fifteenth day, we of chinese descendent call it the 'chap goh meh' here in Malaysia.
it was brought to my attention by one article on The Star online (Cupid gets three chances), of how we of the chinese descent celebrate 'Valentine's Day' a total of three times a year.

needless to say, Chap Goh Meh, is one of the three.

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"... the practice of tossing Mandarin oranges is uniquely Malaysian. To be precise, it originated in Penang where unmarried women would gather at the seaside on the night of Chap Goh Mei. There, they would toss oranges into the sea, hoping the fruits would be picked up by eligible young men who would then become their husbands.
In China and Taiwan, the 15th day of the new lunar year is also known as the lantern festival, and streets and temples there would be decorated with giant paper lanterns.
In the old days when girls were confined to their chambers, Chap Goh Meh offered them an opportunity to go out to see the outside world – and to be seen by eligible young men in search of potential partners..."

~Yum Cha by Lee YP (Sunday, Feb28)

i couldnt help but noticed the sentence in blue.

oh, how blue indeed.

to have but only ONE day out of an entire year to be able to wander out of the confines of their chamber?

well, yes, i bet these young ladies were the well off types where their days were occupied with nothing but perfecting their skills at chinese Qins and silk embroideries of chinese ducks. and the only objective of their existence? to marry off young into an equally if not better off household.

my, my, .. how far we've came since then! (i'm glad.)

but then again, just how far are we from then?

as you ponder along, if you would, with me, for a little longer on this statement, .. it turns, quite sneakily, into a Question.

the norms of a society.

the norms may change.

like.. females now are no longer forbidden to travel alone on their own (yes, things were That barbaric back then).

so may a society of human dwellings.

like.. a more civilised society now is aware that females too, contribute much to the growth and development of a nation.

but not, The Norms of a Society.

when both comes together, no amount of progress or civilisation would prove good enough to change how a current society would view what it deems as the current norm of practice.

like.. "the current middle class norm of two children per family." (to make this sound less feminist..)

that 'acceptable' number of child per family changes every decade or so.

but not the norm that corelates with that decade.

so, how far have we progressed now really, women? ladies?

to the extent that we could defy the current norms of the current society?

i do not think so.

heck! why would anyone want to do that, right? it's not normal!

* * *

~went 'borderless' (again) on a working wednesday.. set free by none other than yours truly.

every seventeenth step had seemed Godsent.

the area deserted, save for some tourists (even with a camera, i do not consider myself as one).

@Batu Caves : 24 Feb, 2010 - Wed.

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not exactly the normal idea of a walk in the park.. but still, Serenity with a bucketload of sweat. what better combination than that?

another itch scratched...